Ahmed Gray, who works in a building materials shop in New York, says he is witnessing first-hand the negative impact of the U.S. tariff policy on the building industry, as he faces a future with higher prices and fewer customers.
The 24-year-old worker's experience reflects growing concerns about the economy across America, with polls showing increasing public frustration with volatile trade policies that many say are backfiring on the U.S. economy.
"I'm forced to tap into my savings right now with the tariffs and everything. It's just all gone up in price. It's just very hard. And you see it everywhere, in your lifestyle, people around you. It's just much harder now. And I can't even save up any money. Because I feel like nobody prepared for these tariffs, and they just dropped it on us," he said.
The tariff’s effects have been immediate and severe at his workplace, he says, as customer traffic has plummeted, forcing management to consider drastic cuts.
"Way fewer customers in the store. Everything has gone up in price. It's de-motivating people to come buy anything. They are in a mode where they just have to live paycheck to paycheck and save up and not promote any of the local businesses or their lifestyles. And it's also affecting the workers. Our hours that are deployed are based on the sales that we are making, and with these tariffs, we're making fewer and fewer sales, so they have to cut hours or relieve people from their duty. It's just negatively affecting everybody around us," said Gray.
"I am afraid of losing my job. The fear is not currently there. I feel like the full effect hasn't kicked in yet. But I do see in the future, in the upcoming months, my job security decreasing. They already are talking about cutting hours by more than 30 percent, and there's no way they could distribute that with the amount of employees that we have," he said.
Even as his income feels under threat, the cost of living just doesn’t stop rising, says Gray
"I've noticed groceries get a lot more expensive. I didn't really expect that because I am thinking anything from overseas was going to be expensive because of the tariffs, but I see local groceries go up in price, and it's all very subtle too, but it's very frequent. Like I said, go by the day, and it's just very scary to see where it'll take us in a couple of months," he said.
The young worker's concerns underscore a broader pattern emerging nationwide - businesses scrambling to adapt to sudden cost surges while workers bear the brunt through reduced hours, job insecurity and spiraling costs.
"I wish policymakers and the public would understand that this drastic change really does negatively impact not just us as workers, but the people around us, the working men or women. It's just something we weren't prepared for. And we're facing those consequences when I don't think we would have if we were given some type of grace period or warning, or even just time to prepare. It's just how fast it hit us, and our reaction to it just, it's hard. We had no time to prepare, and now we're in a survival mode," he said.
U.S. tariff hike puts building materials industry, people's life in "survival mode": local worker
